Festival Outline

transmediale is preparing to get in/compatible in 2012. The theme in/compatible probes the artistic imagination that is developed in a network culture where everything seems to connect, but not all fits in or works together. Under this festival theme we will present a diverse international programme: a two-day thematic symposium, a curated exhibition, an extensive video programme and a performance series which includes the legendary Joshua Light Show. Another highlight is the launch of a new project platform, the reSource for transmedial culture, which will present itself through an experimental programme of workshops, open discussions and performative interventions. The occasion of the 25th anniversary of transmediale will be marked by special screenings and panel discussions. On top of all this, we are partnering up with CTM for a festival Vorspiel consisting of partner events spread all over the city in the weekend immediately preceding our opening.

// Symposium in/compatible: systems | publics | aesthetics
This two-day symposium of interdisciplinary panels and artistic interventions addresses the in/compatible thematic according to three interrelated streams, discussing political, social and cultural incompatibilities from macro, micro and artistic points of view. Each stream is hosted by a chair: Chris Salter (ca), Krystian Woznicki (de) and Rosa Menkman (nl). Some of the speakers participating in the symposium are Stefan and Ralph Heidenreich (de), Tsila Hassine and Ziv Neeman (il), Orit Halpern (us) and Jussi Parikka (fi).

Keynotes will be given by Graham Harman (us), Jodi Dean (us) and Matthew Fuller (uk).

We are very glad to announce that this year's Marshall McLuhan Lecture will be held by Andrew Feenberg (ca).

The performance programme is investigating the analogue as the ghost that keeps haunting our supposedly digital culture. It includes the spectacular Joshua Light Show – a vintage psychedelic act that has been reworked into a contemporary meeting between analogue and digital audiovisuals. Some of our further performance acts: Billy Roisz and dieb13 (at), Mario de Vega (mx) and Flora Könemann (de).

The 2012 festival will mark the 25 year anniversary of the transmediale. This will be made present in different sections of the programming. In the reSource programme, Florian Wüst is hosting an open discussion on the past and future of media collectives, a topic that relates to the foundation of the festival as VideoFilmFest in 1988. In our video programme, works from the early history of transmediale will appear in dialogue with the contemporary works. For the last day of the festival, there will be a special transmediale Unarchived event, an interplay of artefacts and people from the programming of the past 25 years.